The present invention relates to a method and a device for automatically protecting an aircraft, particularly a transport airplane, against a hard landing.
In the context of the present invention, a landing is considered to be a hard landing when, during landing, the impact between the aircraft and the ground occurs at a high vertical speed carrying the risk of endangering those on board the aircraft and/or of leading to damage or breakage of parts or components of the aircraft.
It is known that the final landing maneuvers are the phases in flight that present high risks, due in particular to the proximity to the ground. The critical nature of this situation may be further aggravated by factors such as poor weather conditions or reduced aircraft handling, which make the aircraft difficult to fly and increase the risk of touching down onto the ground at a high vertical speed.
In a hard landing, the aircraft has to undergo a technical inspection and, if necessary, any damaged components have to be replaced in order to ensure the safety of subsequent flights. In a situation such as this the aircraft is therefore immobilized on the ground until the inspection and the technical maintenance have been completed. In the field of commercial aviation, such operations are generally lengthy and costly. In addition, logistic problems (availability of spare parts) may be encountered in addition to the costs associated with the inability of the aircraft to fly immediately (compensation for cancellations and delays).
What is more, the solution whereby certain constituent components might be reinforced in order to make the aircraft more robust in the face of hard landings has the disadvantage of increasing the weight and thus reducing the overall performance of the aircraft.